tl;dr
VeChain is partnering with Franklin Templeton to integrate the BENJI platform for enterprise payments, offering another stablecoin option on VeChain. BENJI provides tokenized access to Franklin Templeton’s OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX), valued at $780 million, with each token representi...
VeChain, a layer-1 blockchain designed for real-world applications, is partnering with Franklin Templeton, a $1.5 trillion asset manager, to integrate the BENJI platform for enterprise payments. This collaboration aims to extend the reach of Franklin Templeton’s platform while offering businesses on VeChain another stablecoin option.
The BENJI platform enables tokenized access to Franklin Templeton’s OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund (FOBXX), an onchain government money fund valued at approximately $780 million. This fund invests in cash, government securities, and collateralized repurchase agreements, with each BENJI token representing one share in the fund, which is pegged to $1.
As part of the partnership, infrastructure provider Bitgo will act as a custody partner for VeChain, and Keyrock, a crypto investment firm, will add derivatives trading capabilities. This collaboration is expected to enhance Franklin Templeton’s distribution strategy and provide enterprises and institutional investors engaging with VeChain a unique way to integrate tokenized money market funds into their payment and cash management systems.
VeChain highlights its dual-token structure as a key advantage, enabling predictable and low-cost operations beneficial for money market funds like FOBXX. Currently, the BENJI platform is available across at least seven blockchains, including Stellar, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Avalanche, Polygon, and Aptos, with Stellar holding the largest market cap at $432 million.
Compared to these other blockchains, VeChain’s total value locked (TVL) is relatively low at $1.7 million, with a seven-day decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume of $36,221. Competing tokenized funds in this space include BlackRock’s BUIDL with a $2.4 billion market cap, and Ondo’s Short-Term US Government Bond Fund with a $709 million cap.
Despite the differences in scale, FOBXX stands out for having the most holders—690 investors—compared to fewer than 100 holders for each of the competing funds.